Wetherspoon's recognised for mixed-age workforce

JD Wetherspoon has become the first pubco to be recognised for employing a mixed-age workforce by the Department for Work and Pensions.

The company has been awarded Age Positive Employer Champion status - designed to promote the benefits of employing people of all ages and tackle age discrimination in the workplace.

"This is a great accolade," said the company's recruitment manager Sarah Carter.

"Part of the success of the company is due to being innovative and progressive and this is reflected in our recruitment process.

"Employing a diverse workforce of men and women of all ages benefits individual pubs and the company as a whole."

The company, which employs more than 16,000 staff across its UK pubs, will now display the Age Positive Employer Champion Status logo on all of its recruitment material.

Stephen Timms, minister for pension reform, said: "The pub sector as a whole is often found to suffer from retention problems, so managers can only gain by opening up their recruitment to people of different ages.

"It's about time that we 'called time' on age discrimination once and for all."